Characterization of Plant-Specific Biomolecular Condensates

Compared to animals, plants have very different lifestyles as well as face unique environmental challenges. Plants may respond to internal and external stimuli through biomolecular condensates driven by liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS). Here, CD BioSciences is committed to characterizing plant-specific biomolecular condensates.

Advances in Plant Biomolecular Condensates Research

LLPS is the basis for the formation of biomolecular condensates. Research on LLPS and biomolecular condensates formation has matured rapidly over the past decade; however, the exploration of phase separation in the context of plant biology has received little attention until recently. There are many biomolecular condensates in plants that are common to animals, such as nucleoli, Cajal bodies, processing bodies, and stress granules, etc. Plants are susceptible to seasonal changes in environmental stressors and face unique challenges during their growth and development that have led to the evolution of yet-to-be-discovered plant-specific condensates. Condensates formation is often sensitive to changes in temperature, pH, salt concentration, and other parameters that fluctuate widely throughout the plant life cycle, increasing the likelihood that plants may have to employ unique, plant-specific mechanisms to regulate condensates formation.

Fig. 1. Nuclear condensates in plant. (Kim J, et al., 2021)

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Our plant biologists have applied methods optimized in other systems to plants to avoid the pitfalls that may have been encountered in early studies in this area. Our lab has transient expression systems for studying plant condensates to characterize protein behavior, including tissue infiltration of Nicotiana benthamiana leaves and protoplasts. These transient expression systems are more similar to the natural environment than in vitro systems. We also provide cutting-edge computational tools, biophysical methods, and information prediction tools to characterize plant biomolecular condensates.

In addition to some condensates that are shared between plants and other organisms, some condensates appear to be plant-specific. These biomolecular condensates are important to help plants adapt to their environment for growth and development. CD BioSciences can help you characterize several plant-specific biomolecular condensates, including:

• Dicing bodies, such as Arabidopsis cleavage protein DRB2, and phytochrome interaction factor 4 (PIF4).
• Photobodies, such as plastid transcriptional activity 12 (pTAC12).
• Subnuclear and phytohormone signaling condensates, such as the ARF transcription factors that act in auxin signal transduction, transcriptional regulators for the abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA), and ethylene phytohormone signaling pathways.
• Condensates and the Circadian Clock, such as CIRCADIAN CLOCK ASSOCIATED1, ELF3, and ELF4.

Our experts are constantly exploring other plant-specific biomolecular condensates. Our reliable bioinformatics analysis provides a list of possible candidate proteins for bottom-up approaches aimed at exploring plant phase separation. In addition, we can perform a gene ontology analysis of the list of proteins predicted to have a driving phase separation profile. If you have any special requirements for our services, please feel free to contact us.